CD 23: More Smackdown On Bonilla

Alternative weeklies within districts where hotly contested races are being run are often a great source for some choice soundbites about the candidates.

The San Antonio Current is no expection, and gives Bonilla a pretty good smackdown in a new article:

But Craig Goodman, a political-science professor at Texas Tech, suggests that Bonilla could be a shadowy backbencher and even less effective now that his party won’t control the agenda. Then there’s that little matter of payback, which is always a bitch when you’re the one getting it. Bonilla could be up for a horse head in his bed (see also CATTLE entry below), for aggressive tactics like threatening Democratic lawmaker Marcy Kaptur of Ohio when she offered a last-minute amendment, saying he would zero out any project that benefited her constituents if she didn’t shut up. Now she’s the senior Democratic lady on the Appropriations Committee.

No doubt that will make Bonilla pretty impotent, appropriations wise, in the next congress if he’s lucky enough to be reelected.

But wait! There’s more:

And although he was deposed in 2004 due to the magic of redistricting, Ciro spent seven years in Congress, so you shouldn’t expect him to start out at the bottom if elected, Goodman said. “He’s been a fairly loyal Democrat. It’s up to the party leaders, and I’d be surprised if they made him the least-senior Democrat. Obviously, taking someone like Bonilla out would be a major coup.” (Nancy Pelosi has already sent Ciro a few thousand dollars and a “Wish you were here” postcard.)

[...]

You probably remember that mural at South San Antonio High School, painted by a 2000 Latino Studies class, as the “wall of honor” that got a little whiteout after an honoree turned felon (Raul Prado, former school-board member convicted for public corruption in 2004). Now we draw your eyes past the sad Tejano singer in the clown suit, past the painted-over felon, to the trio the South Side sent to Congress: Ciro Rodriguez (D), the late Frank Tejeda (D), and Henry Bonilla (R). Henry is the only South San graduate among them. And November 7 election results say Ciro was the top vote-getter on the South Side, including the precinct containing Henry’s alma mater (Ciro got 112 votes there to Henry’s 45). Henry likes to brag that he never ran for student council in school, and one can’t help but think even then Hispanics suspected he wasn’t down (maybe he preferred the Osmond’s “One Bad Apple” to Paul Revere & the Raider’s “Lament of the Cherokee Reservation” for class of ’71 song?) and would run off with the prom money (like he did the American Dream PAC’s dough, a front organization that funneled jet and hotel fare to him and Tom DeLay’s legal-defense fund).
[...]

Back in 1992, just six weeks before the election, the San Antonio Light discovered that Henry’s campaign used KENS staff and equipment to produce a campaign ad (he didn’t have today’s mountain of money: the Beef PAC hardly knew him). His wife at the time, anchor Deborah Knapp, used newsroom computers to organize political donations, and anchor Chris Marrou planned to host a fundraiser, the Light said, all while KENS covered Henry’s candidacy.

Henry’s a cybersquatter, says Rick Bolanos, the Dem who walked away with the primary win in March (later annulled). Bolanos filed a $1-million federal lawsuit in October alleging that Henry’s campaign treasurer, Jill DeYoung, bought 25 web-domain variations on the Dem challengers name, which redirected browsers to Bolanos2006.com, a webpage with a skeletal “coming soon” announcement. Bolanos said the fake sites registered 25,000 hits, possibly from potential donors and major news outlets seeking interviews. “[DeYoung] needs to be arrested and [Bonilla] needs to be spanked,” he said.

Somehow I was totally unaware of this little scandal, and I believe early on in the cycle I was duped by it as I kept wondering when Rick Bolanos was going to get Bolanos2006 up and running.

And, there is more:

For the Leave No Defense Contractor Behind files … Despite the 2005 Pentagon audit that said Halliburton was overcharging the government (by a mere $100 million), Henry has sent more contracts their way (the Halliburton PAC sent a $1,000 campaign thank-you donation this year). But when the Defense Appropriations Subcommittee lawmaker voted to give small-arms ammo manufacturer Alliant Techsystems a total of $776 million in contracts in the 2002 leadup to war in Iraq, he got a nice lil kickback — he had boosted the value of his wife’s thousands of dollars in Alliant stock and become a war profiteer.

What? What! What? Did someone just page Wendy & Phill Gramm to the lobby of Capitol Annex. I evidently slept through that one, too.
Finally (and Capitol Annex gets a mention here):

If only military personnel had such a friend, the Disabled American Veterans say. They gave Henry a zero for not supporting an amendment to the Military Quality of Life appropriations bill for trauma care and prosthetics, and benefits for surviving spouses with children. The Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America give him a 66 for voting against increasing military-survivor benefits and opposing expanding the TRICARE health-insurance program to the National Guard and U.S. reservists.

“It sounds like Ciro is more sympathetic [to military personnel] issues, from what I hear on TV,” said Cynthia Rangel, whose son, 1994 South San High School graduate and U.S. Air Force firefighter Ray Rangel, died in Iraq in February 2005, leaving behind a wife and four children. American Legion Post 399 on Southcross was renamed to honor Ray last month.

What’s heavier than Henry’s attack ads on Ciro’s alleged links to a “known terrorist” with ties to Libya (the Express-News reports Ciro received a 1998 donation from a shady character before any criminal investigation into his shadiness)? Henry’s hindsight hypocrisy, says Capitolannex.com. Henry may stump on Meet the Press about the dangers illegal immigration poses to national security. But if his beloved HR 4437 had been law in 1993, he’d be a felon for employing an undocumented British nanny for seven years. Henry swore she was “no burden on society whatsoever,” according to Roll Call (citing the Houston Post). But it wasn’t until he was investigated by the Justice Department that it was revealed he hadn’t paid Social Security or taxes on her wages. So, what’s the statute of limitations on sizing up a candidate’s terrible judgment?

Nice.

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